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Branded
Summary Episode summary Plot Stabler and Benson are called to an apartment where a man has been hogtied, stripped and branded "RUINER" on his chest. The last thing businessman Bill Dixon remembers, he was setting up a game for family night. There are no signs of forced entry and no reported suspicious people in the building. At the hospital, the doctor also says she found a game timer and two dice inserted inside him. Fin talks to the super of Bill's building and discovers somebody dropped off a box two hours before Bill's assault. When the super opened the box the next morning, it was empty. Benson believes the attacker hid inside the box, and that's how he got inside the building. Before detectives can investigate further, they receive a phone call from another victim. Victor Ramos was found in his apartment in the same condition as Bill, except his brand reads "TRAITOR." Victor was drugged the same way Bill was. He was also sodomized with an unusual object, a candle from his table.Fin trails Victor after he leaves SVU, watching him meet up with Bill and another man named Alexander Gammon outside Gammon Imports. Fin shoots video of the three men screaming at each other. Stabler and Benson question Alexander, who says he was having a business argument with the two men. Fearing he'll be the next victim, the detectives set up surveillance in Alexander's apartment. The detectives watch as a delivery service drop off a box at Alexander's building, which resembles the one dropped off at Bill's building. They sit and wait. Just as suspected, somebody climbs out of the box with a syringe. The person sneaks into Alexander's apartment and is arrested on the spot by Stabler and Benson. They're shocked to see it's Camille, the woman who worked at the delivery service that dropped off the box. They bring her to SVU for questioning. The new ADA Gillian Hardwick says she can't prosecute Camille, because she doesn't have enough evidence linking her to the other crimes - especially if Bill and Victor stand by their story that a man must have attacked them. Gillian gets the detectives a search warrant for Camille's apartment. They find a photo from a summer camp, where teenaged Alexander was a camp counselor, Victor worked as a cook, and Bill was a lifeguard. Stabler and Benson head to Clean Air Camp to look for answers. There the camp director, Mrs. Holmes tells the detectives that Alexander worked for the camp in the summer season of 1996 and was unpopular due to his arrogant behavior. Although the three men worked in different positions, Victor and Bill became followers of Alexander. As for Camille, Mrs. Holmes said she found her at the dock the morning after the 4th of July fireworks and Camille, in a tramatized state, gave her the same rhyming words she gave Benson at SVU. Benson visits Camille in the lock-up to ask what happened to her that one summer she was at Clean Air Camp. Camille describes that after the Fourth of July fireworks, Alexander lured her to the woods by telling her there was a party. In the woods, she found Bill and Victor there, too. Bill and Alexander raped her. When Victor refused to do the same, he was taunted by the other two men until he did. Camille tells Benson that Alexander told her to not say a word after the attack because nobody would believe her. When Benson asks why Camille waited 14 years to get revenge, she explains that she was recently reminded of the baby girl she gave up for adoption as a result of the rape and began having terrible flashbacks. Benson's shocked that pregnancy was the result of Camille's gang rape. Benson's shocked to hear Gillian's still going to prosecute Camille for the attacks. At trial, Bill testifies that he worked at the camp, but had no sexual relations with Camille. Later, Alexander tells the jury that Camille constantly came on to him while at camp and was sexually aggressive. During recess, Stabler confronts Victor to remind him that his teen-aged daughters are the same age as Camille when she was raped. The defense presses Victor to talk about his past with Camille. He says that Camille had a crush on Alexander and was always pursuing him. Camille stands up and starts talking about the teen aged girl she heard laughing in the park just before the attacks, but she doesn't reveal how the laughter reminds her of the daughter she gave up for adoption. Benson accuses Gillian of attacking Camille all over again on the stand while in court. Gillian gives Benson a folder and sheepishly tells her to not open it. Benson does open it and is shocked at what's inside. The next day, Benson uses what was inside the folder to bring a new witness to the court for the defense, Camille's teen-aged daughter, Hannah. On the stand Hannah says she's in court because she was asked by the defense to take a DNA test for their case. Hanna's biological mother is proven to be Camille and she points out Victor as her biological father. Victor starts to confess to the gang rape as Alexander urges him to shut up. Victor tells the court that Alexander has been paying off Bill and himself for years and he's raped other women, too. Stabler brings Alexander to SVU and tells him that Bill and Victor are going to prison for perjury. Stabler tells Alexander he might be serving more serious jail time, now that two more women have come forward claiming he raped them. Camille's charges have been reduced to trespassing and she thanks Benson for all of her help. Afterward, Camille is introduced to her daughter for the first time and is welcomed with a hug. Cast Main cast * Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler * Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson * Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only) * Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola * B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang * Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only) * Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen Recurring cast * Melissa Sagemiller as A.D.A. Gillian Hardwicke * Lindsay Crouse as Judge D. Andrews * Joel de la Fuente as T.A.R.U. Lieutenant Ruben Morales * Anne James as Dr. Jane Larom * Jamie Lynn Concepcion as Uni Delgado Guest cast * Bess Rous as Camille Walters * Kevin Alejandro as Victor Ramos * Meredith Patterson as Joyce Dixon * David Alan Grier as Jeremy Swift * Jason Wiles as Alexander Gammon * Michael Gladis as Bill Dixon * Marcella Lowery as Margaret Holmes * Odeya Rush as Hannah Milner * Ben Sinclair as Jonas Rothenberg * Athena Eleanor Ripka as Lizzie Dixon * Nicholas Locicero as Michael Dixon References Episode references Quotes * (Elliot and Olivia look at a picture of Camille with a man.) Elliot Stabler: Her with her dad before he was sent away to Bellevue? Olivia Benson: We're all branded, I guess. By our parents, our childhoods. Elliot Stabler: Think you turned out all right. Olivia Benson: Makes one of us. (she smiles) ---- * Olivia Benson: Are you proud of yourself? You trashed her. Gillian Hardwicke: My job's to win the case. Olivia Benson: No, your job is to make sure that justice is done! Convicting Camille isn't justice. Gillian Hardwicke: That's for the jury to decide. Olivia Benson: The jury is going to throw the book at her because you turned her into some crazy slut. Congratulations! Background information and notes * This episode appears to be an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series novels, which were receiving a lot of media attention at the time; Camille appears to be based in part on the trilogy's heroine, the hacker Lizbeth Salander, and her branding of her rapists was likely inspired by a scene in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in which Salander forcibly tattoos her abusive legal guardian to mark him as a rapist. Episode scene cards ---- Category:SVU episodes